St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts is heading a group seeking to buy the NFL's Rams and keep the team in St. Louis.

On Monday, the Rams announced that the family of former owner Georgia Frontiere has hired the investment firm of Goldman Sachs to review the assets of her estate, including the NFL team. The move was seen as potentially expediting a sale of the franchise.

A spokesman for Checketts, Eric Gelfand, said Checketts first approached Frontiere's son, Chip Rosenbloom, several months ago about buying the team. Gelfand said Checketts has put together a group consisting of St. Louisans and outside investors to buy the franchise, which Forbes magazine estimates has a value of $929 million.

• Two-time Pro Bowl selection Rodney Harrison, who worked for the NFL Network and NBC while injured last season, has scheduled a conference call for this morning and is expected to announce he is retiring to enter the broadcast booth. Harrison won two Super Bowls with the Patriots but missed the last 10 games last season after tearing a muscle in his right thigh.

• Cornerback Nate Clements will miss the 49ers' minicamp this weekend with a case of pneumonia.

• Broncos Pro Bowl receiver Brandon Marshall is free to play the entire 2009 season, providing his surgically repaired hip allows it, after he learned Tuesday he won't face disciplinary action from the NFL over his latest arrest in a March 1 domestic dispute with his fiancée.

AUTO RACING

Long's suspension upheld Although the National Stock Car Racing Commission said it was tempting to give Carl Long and his crew chief penalties they could "more-readily bear," the driver's appeal was denied Tuesday.

Long was penalized for having an oversized engine at Lowe's Motor Speedway last month. Long and his wife, car owner DeeDee Long, were suspended 12 races and docked 200 points. Crew chief Charles Swing was fined $200,000. All are NASCAR records.

"I'm truly disappointed in NASCAR," Long told the Associated Press. "The sport I love and grew a part of has really given me a sour taste in my mouth."

• NASCAR moved Jeremy Mayfield's challenge of his indefinite suspension for failing a random drug test to federal court, a move that could keep the driver out of his car another week.

AROUND THE HORN

College softball: Kimi Pohlman raced home on a squibber back to the circle that Florida ace Stacey Nelson couldn't handle, giving Washington the decisive run in a 3-2 victory for its first NCAA softball championship in Oklahoma City. With the bases loaded in the third inning, Morgan Stuart tapped the ball a few feet in front of home plate, but Nelson was unable to scoop it cleanly. That allowed the go-ahead run to score.

NCAA investigations: The NCAA's Committee on Infractions responded to Florida State's appeal of sanctions from an academic cheating scandal, but kept its answer secret and gave the school 15 days to respond. Florida State is challenging a portion of the sanctions announced in March that would force the school to vacate as many as 14 of Bobby Bowden's 382 career football victories -- only one fewer than Penn State's Joe Paterno. ... Memphis says it should keep the victories from the 2007-08 season which ended in the national title game after an internal investigation turned up no proof that a former men's basketball player cheated on his SAT exam.

NHL: The Bruins have signed forward David Krejci to a multiyear contract extension. He had career highs with 82 games, 22 goals and 51 assists.

FROM NEWS SERVICES